From a seminar by John Morton on Christmas Eve, 1997
How has your Christmas season been going? Well, I’ll tell you how mine’s been going: As much as I like to have an intention to simplify my life (and I’ve found all kinds of ways to declare that intention, to look upon it, to affirm it, to pray upon it), it doesn’t happen. In the field of my behavior and my body, I’m just more active, more involved, and there are more things coming at me than ever.
That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that there are also more things getting by me, and often those are the things that I would like to be personally involved in—and I don’t get to. I have a choice of being frustrated about that, and sometimes it’s like heat, where the frustration gets so close that I start getting hot, and getting burned. And in getting burned, there’s a choice of reacting. If you get burned, there’s a contraction, a reaction, a pulling away and stopping whatever was going on prior to the burning.
But I realize more and more that my destiny is to let the world get by me, and not try to manage it, or handle it in some way. I’m really at my greatest peace when I just let go. I allow the world and the process in the world, whatever it is, to do what it does. That includes whatever people are doing in and around me, the personal news of the people that are in my life, the news of the day, and on into whatever happens in the wider and wider circles of things that are going on around me in the world.
Somebody who works with me had her car stolen last night, right in front where she lives. She pointed out that it wasn’t exactly in front of her house, where she usually likes to park it. It was two doors down—as if two doors down was more remote or more risky. Do you really suppose it would have made any difference if it was two doors up? Somehow, I don’t think so. Those are just the kinds of things that go on, and that present us with an obstacle if we are we are “close to the ground.” The reason I look at it that way is that when we get “up” in our consciousness, with the altitude that’s available to us spiritually, we really don’t experience the obstacles as being against us. We find them as things that serve us in ways that are stepping stones and opportunities.
Today I was watching a movie of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. It’s really a mystical story, a story of conversion—a conversion of the part of us that can be hardened to the world. That hardened part of us is converted to the part that can be awakened to who we are in the Christ. When we awaken to that, there’s a magical quality that’s quite wonderful. It’s similar to It’s a Wonderful Life, where, in the end, the Jimmy Stewart character comes back to his family and he’s completely ecstatic with the same situation that only two hours ago he was yelling and screaming about. That’s a similar type of conversion, where we realize that who we are spiritually converts all the “obstacles” in the world.
So my question is, what does it take for us to have that conversion? Do we have to go through something that’s very confrontational, very disturbing, such as in the story of A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life? Perhaps you’re sitting there saying, “I’ve already had that. I’ve already looked upon my death. I considered doing myself in and I had a conversion, and that’s why I’m here.” But if you’re like the rest of us, you’re not exempt from the things that we allow to creep up on us again. Have you ever noticed that?
So you might ask yourself this question: Whoever you are in your heart, in your Soul, however you see yourself with God, whether you consider yourself related to the Christ or not related to the Christ, how would you make the conversion so that it becomes more lasting? So that every day it becomes a process of being in the Spirit of the Heart? And what would that look like?
If we take the examples that are before us, there’s a quality of giving, a quality of sharing, of seeing the good in all things. It’s also the quality of knowing ourself enough so that when we start reacting or getting upset with things, we know that really isn’t our true self. That’s not our anointed one speaking. That’s the one who’s forgotten and lost track. How would we convert that aspect of yourself that has forgotten who you are and moved off track? I’d like to propose something: that you find a way to have this Christmas Spirit, or whatever you choose to call it, more often, so that you really would be willing to do it at any time of the year. In MSIA we’ve actually done Christmas in July, where we got a tree and decorated it and went through all the usual traditions, with a group of people saying, “We’re going to celebrate Christmas, and we’re going to have it in July.”
In many cultures we are honored simply because we’re a guest. If you come into someone’s house you are honored just because you arrived. And there’s a level of trust in that that says, “Something about you is worth loving and caring for. You’re welcome here, and because you’re a guest in my house then I am to serve you. You are of the Lord that makes you sacred to me.” There’s also the willingness to receive. You don’t become somebody who’s reluctant, as in, “Oh no. I can’t do that,” or, “I can’t accept that.” You allow yourself to receive.
One of the messages that came loud and clear from this man Jesus is, “If you really get what’s going on here, you’re going to love one another.” He gave many examples of giving things away and sharing things, such as, if you have two shirts, give the other away. If someone asks for something give to them what you would want if you were in their situation. He talked about having the willingness to turn the other cheek. I’ve always looked at that as not about being weak, but being strong. If somebody strikes at us, one way to look at it is maybe there’s something in there for us. If you really need to strike, if that’s serving the situation, then take another strike so that what needs to be done is done and over.
It’s a giving way. If the concerns you have in your life are about what you are getting or how comfortable you are then you might want to consider how that’s serving you in the level of your heart. There’s a challenge when we pick ourself up spiritually which is: How do we then apply it as a living expression?
Our expression becomes one of service, so that as we pick up on the Spirit, we pick up that our life is not really about the things that go on in this world. We have a willingness to give them up for something greater that we receive. The understanding is that we are storing what is being given—you could call it our “treasures”—in a place that is eternal, where they cannot be corrupted.
One way that we will know that we are following in the line of the Christ is the way we do love one another. In the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, we teach that it begins with you so that you do love yourself. You honor yourself and you respect yourself. As that comes into fruition, you overflow. The caring becomes more than you can handle, so that it extends naturally to others.
Baruch Bashan.
